Last, but certainly not least, is the third part of our vacation.  As I said in the last post, Matt and I hopped on a bus last second from Gorkha and the Manakamana Temple to Kathmandu where we needed to extend our visas.  Matt's was expiring in just a few days and mine wasn't expiring until mid December but I figured that I was so close to Kathmandu already that it would have been foolish not to just do it then.  So I took Nike's advice (Just Do It) and jumped on one of the many buses baring a rough version of their logo.  All of the buses in this country have either Nike or Adidas logos, sometimes both, painted on their sides, I think because potential riders know and trust the logos.  It has nothing to do with actual sponsorship because they are all slightly misshapen.  Again, and I probably don't even need to say it this time, the ride took longer than expected.  Other than being stuck in traffic for over an hour because of, believe it or not, road construction, the ride was pretty uneventful.

After dropping several people off at their doorsteps, Matt and I were the last two aboard the bus.  We asked the driver and the "conductor" to drop us off at the bus park.  They said okay and then instead dropped us off on the side of the road where their buddy who drives a cab was waiting.  Its funny because they think that we don't see right through their little ploy to help out a friend but it in the end it really doesn't matter, as long as we're not getting "white people prices."  This was something a different cab driver thought he got away with saying to us.  When Matt asked what he said he changed it to, "good Nepali price."  We managed to whittle it down a bit though.  Anyway, we asked the cab driver to take us to Thamel.  He either didn't understand what we were saying or had never heard of the Buddha Garden Hotel so we were just dropped in the middle of Thamel with no direction.  It was quite the sight when we stepped out.  I'm not sure words can do it justice but it was kind of like a much, MUCH denser, shorter, dirtier, and sketchier version of Times Square.  Oh and I'm not sure you could call it a grid either.  Streets cross in every which way, and not a single one of them is named or labeled.  The next thing we were shocked by was the number of white people walking around.  The number of white people I have seen in this country since my time here began easily tripled in the first two minutes we spent in Thamel.  There were lighted signs hanging off of every building, seemingly about to fall off, power lines and other various wires and prayer flags draped across the streets, and vendors, shop owners, and tourists everywhere.

We walked around acting like we knew what we were doing until we couldn't help but laugh at our own ineptitude.  We then began asking around for the Buddha Garden Hotel, largely without luck.  We ended up stumbling across Fire and Ice, a very popular brick oven pizza restaurant just outside of the hustle and bustle of Thamel that we were told to visit.  With bags on our backs we decided to eat before finding the hotel.  The pizza was actually very good, but keep in mind this is coming from someone who has been without American food for 2 months.  We ended up eating dinner there every night, and once or twice for lunch. We were seated at a table for four with a guy and girl, both from China.  We had some interesting conversations.  I asked stupid questions when it got silent for my own entertainment; questions like, "what do you prefer to use, chopsticks or forks and knives?"  At least one of them thought I was funny.

After dinner we needed to find a place to stay and lost tourists are an easy target for taking advantage of in the eyes of the locals.  We ended up bartering with a bicycle rickshaw driver to take us there because he claimed to know where it was and the streets were quickly clearing out.  It was only about 8:45 pm when we were dropped off at the hotel but much to our surprise the big metal gates out front were already locked shut.  It was time to call an audible, something we were completely unprepared for, especially in a part of town like Thamel.  As we stood in front of the locked hotel and wondered aloud as to what our next move would be, we were approached by a man who asked us if we needed a place to stay.  As it turned out, he was a hotel manager and his hotel was across the street and down just a few buildings.  The name of the place was Hotel Chillout, recently changed from The Diplomat or something like that.  I guess something so official sounding didn't fit well in a place like Thamel so they decided they needed an image change.  Anyway, we took what sounded like a fair enough price for the night, which actually wasn't, but was a cheap enough mistake to make, and then enjoyed a beer on the roof of the hotel with the staff.  They were very friendly and made us feel at home.  We even got to congratulate a brand new father on the birth of his daughter that day.  We were wary enough of our new friends seeing as we just met and already knew some about Thamel's reputation, but it turned out to be a great experience to just sort of stumble into.

We slept well enough in our room and started the day early the next morning.  The plan was to go get our visas extended and then get breakfast.  We found our way to the immigration office and stood around with no one there to help us.  We eventually found some more information which led us to realize how woefully unprepared we were.  We didn't have visa pictures, copies of our passport, or US dollars which we were wrongly told we needed.  We decided to get all of those things after lunch at Fire and Ice.  Getting all of the necessities was easy enough.  A travel agent helped us procure those items and book a flight back to Surkhet, the newly opened air port which is much closer to the house than Nepalgunj.  The rest of the day we pretty much just rested and ate.  We ate at Fire and Ice, yet again, and this time with a guy from Singapore.  His english wasn't quite as good but it was still interesting to talk with him.  Afterwards we decided we wanted to get out and see some of the nightlife so we decided to check out a place called the Rum Doodle which is famous for all of the visits from Everest expeditioners.  They have large cutouts of feet hanging from all over the ceiling signed by many different expeditions, some dating back to the 70's and maybe even late 60's if I remember correctly.  We stayed for only a drink and eves dropped on a large group making all sorts of toasts.  By the looks of them we could tell they weren't going to be summiters but more likely base camp visitors.  We then decided to check out Hotel Garuda, which many famous Everest summiters have stayed in the nights before their trek, including Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, John Krakauer, and others from the best seller, Into Thin Air.  They had lots of memorabilia and signed posters from Hall and Fischer.  We then checked out one more bar that had a surprisingly good live Nepali band playing good American music before we called it a night.

The next day we got up early again so we could be at the immigration office before it opened and be done with it.  There was already a small line so we jumped in and waited patiently.  After listening to some other tourists talk about potential problems and ways that they may try to screw us we grew a little nervous and stressed.  There was only one more group in front of us before we were up next.  After they got through and just before we could step up to the counter we had a Nepali man put out his arm and prevent us from moving forward.  As he did this he waved up a group of eight Italians standing directly behind us in line.  They grabbed Matt's backpack and made him step aside as if he were their previous prime minister.  There was nothing we could do except sit and steam.  The Nepali man clearly had a friend in the office.  It was just weird that they waited until we were next.  About 20 minutes later we ended up getting through without any issues.  We left our passports at the office and had to come back at 3 pm to pick them up.  In the meantime we found a KFC and gorged on that for lunch.  I never knew greasy chicken could taste so good.  Then we walked around for a while, taking in some of the architecture and buying some stupid stuff for Christmas presents.  Don't ask what.  It's still November.  At 3 we returned to the immigration office and were in line to pick up our passports.  The Italians were no where to be seen until, again, we were next in line.  Can you guess what happened?  Yup, shoved aside again.  I now have a legitimate counter argument to the statement, "Americans are the most obnoxious tourists."  We checked out of our hotel and actually decided to check into Hotel Garuda, just to say we did.  As it turns out, we unknowingly turned down the room Rob Hall and Jan Arnold had stayed in for the room right next door.  Although, for the superstitious, maybe that was for the best.  Their expedition didn't fare too well.

It was our last night in Thamel so Fire and Ice was the obvious choice for dinner, again.  This time we sat with two German women.  They spoke english very well but spoke in German most of the time anyways.  I think they were commenting on our conversation because I heard them repeat several words that we had just said.  They were very friendly though so I didn't mind.  Then we set out to see a little more of the nightlife.  It was a holiday so I think the sketch dial had been turned up.  All weekend we were being offered hashish by men on the streets but this night was particularly bad.  Our first night it was a little unsettling, the second night it was annoying, and the third night it just became entertaining.  You couldn't walk a quarter of a block without being offered hash.  They would do this right in front of cops.  We almost made it into a game, pointing out the drug dealers before they would rush up to you and whisper audibly, "Hashish? Hashish?"  We even encountered our first group of transvestites/transexuals.  We didn't stick around long enough to figure out what they were exactly but they saw us and were calling us over to them.  One of our Fire and Ice friends had warned us about them and how they like to do just that and then grab your crotch.  We circled wide around them as we passed.  We ventured into one venue for a drink and both agreed it was potentially dangerous so we payed our bill and skedaddled, problem free.  We had had enough of the weird stuff Thamel has to offer for one night so we returned to the Rum Doodle for a drink and then one more at Paddy Foley's, another bar with the same live band from the night before.

Our flight was at 9 am the following morning.  We arrived with plenty of time to spare and when they were letting our flight through security we noticed that the BIR on our tickets did not actually stand for Birendranagar, the part of Surkhet where Kopila Valley and the airport are located.  Instead it stood for Biratnagar.  Our travel agent had booked an incorrect flight.  Biratnagar is southeast of Kathmandu and we intended to go northwest.  For some reason he insisted the Surkhet airport was open, but this was not the case.  Luckily we found an airport employee who helped us better than most US airport employees would.  He helped us change our tickets so that we could catch a flight 6 hours later going to Nepalgunj, the next closest airport to Surkhet.  We killed some more time in Thamel and the caught our flight.  We could see the Himalayas once we took off.  They were stunning.

Landing in Nepalgunj was interesting.  There were far more passengers on the one small airplane than there were airport employees present.  We then took some more rickshaws over to the bus station where we learned that there were no more buses to Surkhet that day and it was only about 4 pm.  At this point we wanted nothing more than to just get back to Kopila Valley.  Instead we had to stay in a hotel overnight and wake up early to catch a 4:45 am bus back.  Checking out was made outrageously difficult but because they knew Kopila Valley they ended up just sending the bill along later.  We were there in time for the bus, but it didn't leave until almost 2 hours later.  What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into about a 5 hour endeavor.  I don't even know why I'm complaining about it at this point, its what I expected.  Anyway, we got home in one piece and just crashed for the rest of the day, no worse for the wear.

It was fun travelling around Nepal with no plans for a while, but in the future I think I'll save those kind of adventures for a country that doesn't add loads of stress to every short bit of transportation.



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